🔗 Share this article

Residents of the Big Apple will find out who will be their next mayor this election day, in a race that will decide who runs and defends the country's largest city at a moment when the former president has vowed to deploy military troops to the city.

Against that backdrop, New York has witnessed a mayoral election that has pitted two very different Democrats against each other. The election has become an acrimonious showdown, laced with accusations of racial bias and anti-Muslim sentiment, but it is the political differences between the two main contenders that could have significant consequences for how the party performs in next year's midterm elections.

The Progressive Challenger

On the left side is the democratic socialist, the young democratic socialist whose meteoric rise and grassroots campaign has brought international attention. On the establishment side is Andrew Cuomo, the ex- New York governor now campaigning independently – and benefiting from the support of wealthy contributors and corporations.

With days to go, it is the progressive, the former longshot who defeated his opponent in the party primary who is firmly installed as the frontrunner. The candidate, who has run on a agenda of economic justice and pledged to freeze rent for about two million New Yorkers, has outpaced his rival by double-digits in every poll taken in the fall, and it is very much the progressive's race to throw away.

The Controversial Campaign

However, the former governor, who stepped down as governor in recent years amid accusations of misconduct, has stated clearly he will battle to the finish, and not necessarily in an above-the-belt fashion. He has trashed his opponent's objectives as unachievable, and in the final stretch chuckled along as a broadcaster made Islamophobic remarks about Mamdani, who is Muslim. Recently, the independent was widely condemned as racist after posting an AI-generated ad that included a slew of racial caricatures and showed his opponent freeing a group of criminals.

This represents a rather grubby conclusion to an election that could be critical to the direction that the Democratic party, floundering in its response to the former president's authoritarian grabs, takes in the near future.

National Implications

Should the progressive secures a clear victory, the establishment party leaders who have refused to endorse his bid will be forced to reckon with a platform that has appealed to voters' frustration at economic disparity, inflation and the establishment. It would be hard for Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries not to adopt at least some of the candidate's progressive proposals about economic justice, given the newcomer has created an excitement within the Democratic ranks arguably not witnessed since the Vermont senator campaigned for the White House in 2016.

However, if Cuomo, who had been predicted to win easily in the June primary, complete a remarkable riches-to-rags-to-riches win, it could cement the party's current model of considered, uninspiring resistance – a strategy that has angered grassroots members. A New York rejection of the progressive's progressive, positive message could convince party leaders that the best plan is to remain in the political center – even as surveys show the present version of the party is widely disliked nationwide.

Campaign Energy

Residents of the city appear to favor the Mamdani vision. Surveys show that his backers are much more excited about their choice than Cuomo backers, something that has been evident during the race. Mamdani's engaging content on social media, his optimistic vision for the city and his readiness to actually venture out and connect with voters in the metropolis has drawn an army of over fifty thousand volunteers, many of them young or new participants.

Personal Attacks

Yet, Cuomo, 67, continues to fight. And with the stakes stacked against him, the former governor has turned to negative campaigning in recent weeks.

After spending months throwing basically everything at Mamdani to see what might stick, the independent has concentrated on targeting Mamdani directly. He has called Mamdani, who was born in Uganda to South Asian heritage, an “extremist”, and appeared on Fox Business for an interview with a rightwing host, where the candidate claimed the city “will not survive” Mamdani as mayor. It hit bottom last week, when the former governor chuckled and said “that’s another problem” after a radio host said the candidate would “cheer” another terrorist incident.

Political Landscape

The line of attack echoes much of what the former president, who has deployed the national guard to the capital and threatened to take similar action to New York, has said about the progressive, and perhaps that shouldn’t come as a surprise. A set of wealthy residents, including some who donated to Trump in the 2024 election, have invested heavily into trying to get the independent elected, as other influential figures have pressured Curtis Sliwa to drop out from the race.

Political Histories

As far as the Cuomo camp, and his wealthy backers, are concerned, it should never have come to this. When the assemblyman, one of one hundred fifty New York state assembly members, launched his mayoral bid in October 2024, not many had known him, and in truth, barely anyone even noticed.

The former governor, by contrast, entered smoothly into the race in March 2025 and became the instant favorite. He was the political heavyweight who seemingly held every edge. The classic establishment figure, he had wed a Kennedy and worked in a Democratic presidency. He became the state's leader in 2011, seventeen years after his parent, Mario Cuomo, left office from the same position.

The progressive, who was elected to the New York state assembly in 2020, does not have the comparable background. But his dedication to providing free buses and affordable child services – along with the rent control promise – present a brighter outlook of the future than Cuomo’s dire warnings about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his vow to hire more police officers.

Recent Challenges

Still, the candidate has encountered difficulties in recent days, after footage surfaced suggesting him implying the NYPD and the IDF were connected.

“We have to make clear that when the pressure of the police is on your neck, it’s been laced by the Israeli military,” Mamdani said in the clip, filmed at a Democratic Socialists of America convention in 2023. Mamdani, a vocal opponent of the Israeli government who has said the country is committing genocide in Gaza, suggested he was criticizing cooperative programs between the NYPD and Israeli forces.

Emotional Response

With the election nearing, the candidate appears to have won empathy and backing, however, for his response to his opponent's escalating attacks.

Mamdani addressed the independent's 9/11 remarks in an emotional video. In it, Mamdani remembered how, when he first campaigned for state assembly, a Muslim uncle suggested to him that he did not have to tell people about his Muslim faith. It was a realization, Mamdani said, that many local Muslims had been told “again and again”: “That safety could only be found in the shadows of our city. That it is in those hidden spaces alone where Muslims could express their full identities, and that if we were to step out from those seclusion, then it is in those silence that we must set aside our faith.”

Speaking to the behavior of his opponents, who has alleged Mamd